I am new to figs, so all my fig plants are young.  I was fortunate enough to have been given a few plants, I have also rooted a few varieties over the winter and have bought a few from local nurseries.  All my plants are less than a couple years old at the most. 

My collection has grown a little too big and I want to "thin the herd" and keep only the top performers - in terms of taste, hardiness and productivity. 

My plan is to wait until the end of this season and see which figs I like best.  But I have read a lot on this forum about how first year figs don't usually taste that great.  So I don't want to give up on a fig that might develop better taste as it gets older. 

Are they any varieties that are really good right from the start? And conversly, are there varieties that are usually not very good when the plant is young, but improve over time?

I remember Pete saying Kathleen Black wasn't too impressive the first year.  It may be easier if you list what you have so we can break it down from there.

What I have is in my signature - Malta Black, VDB, Black Mission, Petite Negra, LSU Purple, Black Jack, Celeste, Green Ischia, Lyndhurst White, Desert King and Alma

Malta Black, Vdb, Green ischia-all keepers.

I am 100% sure about the Malta Black and most likely, I am going to keep the VDB, Petite Negra and Celeste.  The others are the ones I am not so sure about.  

I bought the Green Ischia from Lowes and it produced my first home grown fig, but it was a bit of a let down, see my post below.  But I did buy it from Lowes, so it may not be a real Green Ischia.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/my-first-home-grown-fig-6859726?pid=1282455566#post1282455566

The LSU Purple is one they say starts out tasting bland and improves to a very good tasting fig after 2 or 3 years.

Hi m5allen,
Whatever the strain, a new planted tree needs time to settle .
When the figtree settled, she will be able to pump all the nutrients and water needed - and of course as her gardener, you will provide what she could be missing - by watering and fertilizing.
Should you fail, then she will fail and stress and produce inferior figs.

When you buy a tree, the tree was stressed from the nursery - move around, shook, not watered properly, root-bound , too much canopy for the root mass ...
It will take the trees from one to two growth season to recover, and then perform at their best .
I don't think that there is a shortcut to get the results faster - or we would all go for that path.

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There is indeed one shortcut that is to grow a figtree bushy and then, after 4 years, tare apart the trunks with a root mass - I sawed the dirt for that - and the next year I had 4 brebas on one tree, 20 maincrops on the two others
and brebas and maincrop on the 4 trunks that were left at the same place - before the bush had a total of 8 trunks.
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That looks like a really nice starting selection.  It does seem like it might take a few years for a real evaluation.  Can you prune to 1-2 stems to fit them in while waiting? 

The first year Pan E Vino dark was incredible. 

Wills, you are killing me!  A few weeks ago I gave away my Pane E Vino dark because space is limited and I already had Sicilian Red (Red Sicilian?) which is supposed to be identical or highly similar to PEV dark.  Last year I tasted the Sicilian Red for the first time and I was also very impressed - not overly sweet but a very complex melony type of flavor.  It froze nearly to the ground unfortunately so I probably won't be tasting it this year.

lol sorry Steve.  It was by far my favorite last year.  The funny thing is I thought when I ate it that it was Salem dark, the two bushes are neighbors and I did not bother to look at the tags.  It wasn't until I was taking cuttings and double checking the tag on the bush as I did so that I discovered my error.  

Wills, do you also have Sicilian Red and Sal's Corleone?  I'm curious if you think they are essentially the same as Pane E Vino dark.

For me, Hardy Hartford, started out tasting good the very first year  I planted it in ground.

Then later each year it started to taste more and more like a Marseilles Black VS, or a Sal's EL. 

One of its attributes is producing good tasting figs right away, for people who don't want to wait three or four years to have good tasting figs.

Bob Harper

JH Adriatic tasted very good it's very first year. As did Col de Dame Blanc and Tacoma Violet. Others tasted very good at first bite, but they already were into their second years.